Arsenal ready to sign Borussia Dortmund defender

The Daily Mirror reports that Arsenal are close to signing Borussia Dortmund defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos in a £17.5 million deal.

Papastathopoulos is out of contract at Dortmund in a year’s time, and the German club are ready to cash in on him at the end of the season, rather than see him leave for free in 12 months’ time.

Arsenal head of recruitment, Sven Mislintat, is pushing for the deal to take place, and knows the Greek international from their time together at Dortmund.

An experienced centre-half, who has played for the likes of Genoa, AC Milan, and Werder Bremen, as well as Dortmund, Papastathopoulos would help strengthen the Gunners defence, which has been identified as a key area for improvement, along with goalkeeper and central midfield.

Should Papastathopoulos move to the Emirates, he will be joining another Greek central defender there in the form of Konstantinos Mavropanos who made his Arsenal debut away to Manchester United last Sunday.

Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.